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Vasily Smyslov vs Alexander Kotov
"Think Like a World Champion" (game of the day Jun-10-2024)
Moscow Championship (1943/44), Moscow URS
Formation: King's Indian Attack (B25)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jun-29-14  zydeco: I've been surprised, playing through Smyslov's games collection, how many of his games (at least from the 1940s) involve sacrifices. I'd thought of him as being like Karpov or Capablanca and sacrificing only when it's absolutely correct.

Smyslov says that 12.a3 and 14.Rb1 are directed against the possibility of black's castling queenside.

Smyslov suggests 20.....dxe4 21.Nxe4 Nd4 and feels that the game would have been about equal.

31.....Rc8 (intending 32.....Kd8) would have lost to 32.Ng5! fxg5 33.Bxg5+

Jun-29-14  zydeco: <Naniwazu> Black can defend after 27.Bxh6 with 27.....Kg8 28.Rg6 Rf7 29.Rbg1 Kf8 with a position slightly better than what he had in the game.
May-09-18  tigreton: Poor black king, he never found a moment of rest, after such long journey.
Aug-16-18  OrangeTulip: These chess icons must have been exempt by Stalin from serving in the red army which was fighting successfully the Nazis (left handed?)
Nov-18-18  jphamlore: From Smyslov's 125 Selected Games, page 31:

<...White will not try to regain the sacrificed material immediately, but will build up an attack by systematic pressure. Here one has to rely on an evaluation of the position based on general principles, rather than calculate concrete variations.>

This surprises me. I am sure Smyslov at the board did calculate many deep concrete variations at this precise moment of the game. Wouldn't one need to check at least for variations such as 24. ♘f5! gxf5 25. gxf5 ♘g5, resulting in the position


click for larger view

that after something like 26. ♗xg5 fxg5 27. ♘g5+ ♔h8 28. ♘e6 that Black concretely looks on the ropes:


click for larger view

Apr-07-22  Misha709600: Smyslov is a model for serious CS players.
Oct-13-23  ColdSong: Imo with a Knight at.c3 it's a closed sicilian.With a Knight at.d2 it's a King's Indian attack.By the way,as often,Smyslov is impressive and admirable here.
Oct-13-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  fredthebear: You are correct ColdSong. This website haphazardly assigns kingside fianchettoes the dreaded KIA label. This game is a B25 Closed Sicilian that Smyslov often played, but one has to look up the champion's Sicilian games under A07s.

It's no reason to brag about the database.

Oct-13-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: <ColdSong>, that makes sense; actually, I have long agreed with the original responder to your post that classification of numerous A07 games, same as several other ECO groups here, is a mess due to all the transpositional possibilities. There are doubtless dozens of these, if not more, listed under A07 after debuting with 1.Nf3.
Oct-14-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  fredthebear: Let's not kid ourselves. This is no transposition; it's a Sicilian from move one. 2.Nc3 and 5.d3 defines the Closed Sicilian variation. ColdSong has already stated that Pc3, Nbd2 is the King's Indian Attack. This is no KIA and it NEVER was, not from move one.

At least the A07 got regulated to B25. My compliments to the editor. You have about 25,000 mislabeled kingside fianchetto games to go. Pace yourself.

Jun-10-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: Those gosh darned silicon monsters, ruining the fun for all of us carbon-based life forms.

Stockfish 11 (this website's engine) calls 24.Nf5? a serious error transforming an equal game into one where Black has a large advantage. However, after only one mistake, 31...Kd6??; 32.Bf4+ the evaluation flips to a large advantage for White. 32...Ne5 rates as the game-losing blunder.

Not caring, not one little bit. That's what makes us carbon-based life forms so awesome: *we* can make mistakes. And our mistakes in chess provide more and better entertainment than any silicon monster's perfection.

Jun-10-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <An Englishman> I'm not seeing what you described at all. 24. Nf5 is the engine's first choice with an eval of +1.22. How are you checking the engine?
Jun-10-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: That would be a good theme for a book.
Jun-10-24  whiteshark: ♔nife f5!

Game Collection: 70f5_middlegame N-SACS on f5

Jun-10-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: Stockfish 16.1 instantly concludes that 24.Nf5! is both very strong, and the only move to give White a meaningful advantage. It also, surprisingly, says that declining the knight with the ugly 24...g5 is Black's only chance of survival. At depth 31/60, it gives 24...g5 as +1.40 and 24...gxf5 as +2.53.
Jun-10-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Poor Smyslov. He was the World Champion for one measly year.

CyPrus Lackaskillzasarita wrote <HOW SMYSLOV PWNED WORLD CHESS>, it's available for 12 stotinki.

Jun-10-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <FSR> I suspect <An Englishman> was using pgn4web and hitting the e8 square. That actually runs garbochess, a much weaker engine than Stockfish 11.
Jun-10-24  RookFile: I'm sure Kotov was hoping to win with his better position and that made him not aware of the danger.
Jun-10-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Afternoon: Thanks for the feedback, everyone. <beatgiant> correctly deduced that I had clicked on the e8 square and accessed pgn4web, and not SF11, as I had wrongly believed. Reassuring to know that Smyslov was a silicon monster in disguise.

Just out of curiosity, if you click on the e8 square after 24.Nf5, do you get the same "Black is much better" evaluation?

Jun-10-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <An Englishman> If I switch the viewer to pgn4web and click on the e8 square, it shows an eval of -2.2 after 24. Nf5, which I assume is the same as you got.
Jun-11-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: Odd. <beatgiant>, I don't get a number, just the ± sign.
Jun-11-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <An Englishman> I see the number when I hover the cursor over the ±. Does that not work for you?
Jun-12-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: Thanks for showing me that neat trick, <beatgiant>! Fun fact--it gives me a -1.8, not -2.2.

Methinks CG is having a spot of fun with me five remaining brain cells...

Jun-12-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <An Englishman> It's nothing wrong with your brain cells. The garbochess eval can change over time as the script runs deeper calculations.
Jun-25-24  whiteshark: well then...
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